DOI Heft:
Nr. 99 (June 1901)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: On some water-colour pictures by Miss Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19788#0049
Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale
the idea, namely, that aitists lost nothing as of colour-harmonies—another good gift that women
such if they were false to their sex attributes possess more frequently than men—commonly
of temperament and character. Influenced by shows itself not in the hues and tones that lady artists
this false idea, not a few gifted Englishmen went see in external nature with their own eyes, but in
far away from the time-honoured insignia of the blatant plagiarisms of what certain of their male
Anglo-Saxon genius, putting vastly too much store rivals have seen there. And most men, somehow,
by insipid delicacies of thought, of sentiment, and are pleased with this foolish, inept flattery. If
of style. " Refinement," so-called, was everything they can say of a woman's work in art that it is a
to them. They seemed to think in sugar-candy, tour de force, " almost bold enough to be a man's,
When painted for the market even their sheep and you know," they put on a ludicrous air of mingled
cattle were as clean as lapdogs. My lady's boudoir pride and condescension; but when the work is a
was always in their gentle minds. Meanwhile, in Lady Waterford's, instinct with womanly grace,
singular contrast to all this absurd philandering fancy, waywardness, tenderness, and intuition, they
with "refinement," the gentlewomen of England marvel, more often than not, why anyone should
had begun to revolt against their too sequestered speak of it enthusiastically, as though its limitations
home life, in order to hark back both to that love were not clear for all folk to see.
of field sports which their foremothers had enjoyed And this brings one in touch with the second
until the Puritans suppressed it,
and also to a quasi-masculine educa-
tion similar to that which Sir Thomas I iff"' ' "~' ""-""7" '""""flf ''*ffBIKIIIWPff^
More, in the first quarter of the LH ■' :
sixteenth century, had not only j :
advocated but given to his daughters.
The reaction brought about by these
revived incentives to emulation soon
made itself felt in art and in litera-
ture ; and at last it became evident
that the gentler sex desired to rescue
the manful qualities cast away by so
many men of known name. All this,
viewed as a Gilbertian comedy in
aesthetics, was delightful; but let us
rejoice that the art-work of English-
men is becoming much less dainty
and "refined," much less effete, and
therefore better able to give birth
to strong, abiding traditions.
What the world needs now is a
general return to womanliness by
the ladies who try to be artists.
At the present moment, unfortu-
nately, there are but few hopeful
signs of such a return. Most
women of talent now feel called
upon to waste their youth on pre-
tentious efforts to be men—in dull
imitations. Of intuition—a gift of
inestimable value to women—there
is very much less to-day than in
years long past, in the old samplers
and embroideries : it has been
^^^^^
forced to yield empire and preced-
ence to that modern bane, self-con- "the guests" by eleanor fortescue-brickdale
sciousness. Even the delicate sense (By permission of Messrs. Doivdeswell)
34
the idea, namely, that aitists lost nothing as of colour-harmonies—another good gift that women
such if they were false to their sex attributes possess more frequently than men—commonly
of temperament and character. Influenced by shows itself not in the hues and tones that lady artists
this false idea, not a few gifted Englishmen went see in external nature with their own eyes, but in
far away from the time-honoured insignia of the blatant plagiarisms of what certain of their male
Anglo-Saxon genius, putting vastly too much store rivals have seen there. And most men, somehow,
by insipid delicacies of thought, of sentiment, and are pleased with this foolish, inept flattery. If
of style. " Refinement," so-called, was everything they can say of a woman's work in art that it is a
to them. They seemed to think in sugar-candy, tour de force, " almost bold enough to be a man's,
When painted for the market even their sheep and you know," they put on a ludicrous air of mingled
cattle were as clean as lapdogs. My lady's boudoir pride and condescension; but when the work is a
was always in their gentle minds. Meanwhile, in Lady Waterford's, instinct with womanly grace,
singular contrast to all this absurd philandering fancy, waywardness, tenderness, and intuition, they
with "refinement," the gentlewomen of England marvel, more often than not, why anyone should
had begun to revolt against their too sequestered speak of it enthusiastically, as though its limitations
home life, in order to hark back both to that love were not clear for all folk to see.
of field sports which their foremothers had enjoyed And this brings one in touch with the second
until the Puritans suppressed it,
and also to a quasi-masculine educa-
tion similar to that which Sir Thomas I iff"' ' "~' ""-""7" '""""flf ''*ffBIKIIIWPff^
More, in the first quarter of the LH ■' :
sixteenth century, had not only j :
advocated but given to his daughters.
The reaction brought about by these
revived incentives to emulation soon
made itself felt in art and in litera-
ture ; and at last it became evident
that the gentler sex desired to rescue
the manful qualities cast away by so
many men of known name. All this,
viewed as a Gilbertian comedy in
aesthetics, was delightful; but let us
rejoice that the art-work of English-
men is becoming much less dainty
and "refined," much less effete, and
therefore better able to give birth
to strong, abiding traditions.
What the world needs now is a
general return to womanliness by
the ladies who try to be artists.
At the present moment, unfortu-
nately, there are but few hopeful
signs of such a return. Most
women of talent now feel called
upon to waste their youth on pre-
tentious efforts to be men—in dull
imitations. Of intuition—a gift of
inestimable value to women—there
is very much less to-day than in
years long past, in the old samplers
and embroideries : it has been
^^^^^
forced to yield empire and preced-
ence to that modern bane, self-con- "the guests" by eleanor fortescue-brickdale
sciousness. Even the delicate sense (By permission of Messrs. Doivdeswell)
34